Essendon will not cut corners to meet AFL hearing deadline over charges arising from ASADA report

Updated
Thu 15 Aug 2013, 11:59 AM AEST

Photo

Dr Bruce Reid and coach James Hird are two of the four individuals from the Essendon club that have been charged by the AFL with bringing the game into disrepute.

Getty Images: Michael Dodge, file photo.

Essendon chairman Paul Little said the club's lawyers will not be cutting corners to meet AFL deadlines as it prepares to defend those charged with bringing the game into disrepute.

The AFL's general counsel Andrew Dillon announced on Tuesday night that the club, coach James Hird, senior assistant Mark Thompson, football manager Danny Corcoran and club doctor Bruce Reid have have been charged with bringing the game into disrepute.

The four individuals and the club will face an AFL Commission hearing on August 26.

Little said there are components of the charges that are reasonable but components that are quite unreasonable.

He said the four individuals charged have the full support of the club and the focus will be on bringing natural justice to them.

"There will be no corners cut here in trying to reach deadlines that may be deadlines for the AFL but not necessarily deadlines for the club," Little said on the Essendon club's own program The Hangar.

There will be no corners cut here in trying to reach deadlines that may be deadlines for the AFL, but not necessarily deadlines for the club.

Essendon chairman Paul Little.

"We recognise the importance of the 26th of August however the imperative that the club delivers natural justice to these four individuals is equally important if not more so."

Little said Essendon's finals campaign remains a focus for the club and the board.

"There are certain elements of the media that would suggest that shouldn't necessarily be our focus but I am here to ensure you that it very much is."

A slur on our character: Hird

Hird said he and his colleagues were shattered to be charged with what he believes amounts to undermining the integrity of the game he loves.

"All four of us have seen it as a real slur on our character and something we want to defend vigorously," Hird said on The Hangar.

"We obviously don't believe the charges are correct and we obviously we want to challenge those charges, but it's about our football club and who we are as people, about our integrity and we will fight to defend that."

"The fact that the players haven't been charged with infraction notices through this process reinforces to us all that what happened last year was not what other people think it was.

The fact that the players haven't been charged with infraction notices through this process reinforces to us all that what happened last year was not what other people think it was.

Essendon coach James Hird

"Our players didn't take banned substances and our players didn't take harmful substances. The fact that no infraction notices have been issued is another sign of that."

Despite Hird's repeated claims Fox Footy reported its source said the ASADA report states that players may have been administered with substances that were banned under the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and AFL anti-doping codes.

The legal fight Essendon will take on will prove costly and there is also speculation the club could be sued by its own players.

News Limited reports that the lawyer representing NRL player Isaac Gordon in action against the Cronulla club said players concerned over their own health could challenge whether Essendon has fulfilled its duty of care to the players.

"Our view is there may be multiple causes of action available to the Essendon players against their club, coaching staff and players," lawyer James Chrara told the Herald Sun.